Star Tribune sports columnist Jim Souhan has had it up to here with what baseball writers have had to endure when submitting their votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In his column today, Souhan says he’s done voting, having witnessed firsthand the slings and arrows from baseball fans who dissect the writers’ votes.

Now, before I continue, let me point out this factoid:

In the 2007 ballot, 1.5 percent of the writers did not vote Cal Ripken’s entrance into the Hall of Fame.Two-point-four percent left Tony Gwynn off. Nearly 8 percent didn’t think Roberto Clemente belonged in the Hall after his death in 1973.

Given the great players of the last 150 years, the fact that Mariano Rivera, the former New York Yankees pitcher, is only now the first player to be enshrined with a unanimous vote should be proof enough that writers are flawed, potentially corrupt, in their duty to the Hall of Fame.

Now, back to Souhan who wants to remind us of the unique experise that baseball writers have.

“There is a good reason why baseball writers have made these decisions: Journalistic integrity and objective thinking make writers better qualified than almost anyone else,” he writes.

No.

For decades, baseball writers held statistics dear to their hearts. A .300 hitter was a good hitter, for example. A 20-game pitcher was, by definition, the best pitcher.

Then along came Bill James who mathematically — and accurately — redefined how baseball players are measured.

Bill James was a security guard at a pork-and-beans cannery.

Souhan is correct that one of the problems with the writers is they play games with their ballots, trading votes to help a player in another writer’s city in exchange for that writer’s assistance with a player closer to the heart of the first sportswriter.

That acknowledgement, however, betrays the reality that writers aren’t objective. At all.

Souhan deserves credit, though, for removing himself from the process.

I stopped voting for baseball’s biggest seasonal awards because I felt uncomfortable determining whether a player I cover daily, such as Justin Morneau, Johan Santana or Joe Mauer in their primes, should earn financial bonuses attached to awards.

Abstaining from postseason award voting led me to reconsider voting for the Hall. I saw how emotional Bert Blyleven was about failing to get in for so long. I saw how frustrated Jack Morris was by the process.

I voted for both of them. I thought both were Hall of Famers. But I can’t tell you I kept sentiment from affecting me. And sentiment, in this process, should be disqualifying.

Let me be clear: I admire most baseball writers. I admire those who do their homework and who make their votes public, knowing they’ll be criticized. Even if the outrage of the day is a player not receiving 100 percent of the votes or making it into the Hall in the first year of eligibility. Those occurrences are not outrages, just results of a broad-based democratic process.

Souhan’s comments echo those of other writers, who note that social media has made the task difficult.

“When I first pulled them up, I was called a fascist, a Nazi, a racist,” Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram said after he wrote a column that he wouldn’t vote for Rivera. “It was just incredible the things that people called me…. Once that happened I just tuned it out.”

Ballou’s objective reasoning is he didn’t like closers in baseball. He’s not entirely wrong; a closer comes in with nobody on base. A pitcher in, say, the seventh or eighth often comes into the game with a run in scoring position.

But Ballou eventually changed his mind, giving Rivera the distinction other more deserving baseball players in history never got.

“Writers are often left in an awkward spot,” Sports Illustrated’s Jacob Feldman wrote on Thursday. “This isn’t their day job, after all, and while the Hall of Fame is important—maybe the most prestigious professional team sport honor in America —sticking to a principle isn’t worth risking credibility with fans. Not in this media economy.”

In other baseball news: spring training starts in 17 days. Baseball writers will head to Arizona and Florida for a month or so.

About the blogger

Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

Related Blog Posts

I’m not sure how someone who wrote a proactive column about how he wasn’t going to vote for Rivera can then be surprised to hear from people who want him to change his mind (crossing a few problematic lines while doing so, unfortunately).

Are baseball writers required to write about who they are voting for and why? Does the HoF release individual ballots? If not, I am mildly annoyed by the writers talking about how hard it is when they are the ones choosing to put their votes out there. You can’t have it both ways.

TBH

I love the Spring Training reminder on a chilly morning like this! Excited to get back to Target Field, but I am hoping that I’m wearing shorts and flip flops on March 28 as opposed to a winter jacket. I’ll make sure to say hello and thank you for NewsCut in person if I happen to run into you.

Regarding the article – I’m a little surprised Rivera was the first unanimous. I’m not surprised because he is not deserving of the HOF, but I never did think that the idea that you were never going to vote for someone on their first year of eligiblity would be completely removed from the process. There have been many great ballplayers throughout the last 100+ years.

ONE more side note now that I’m thinking of great ballplayers – everyone should check out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum if you are in the Kansas City area. I had no idea of the rich history of the league and happened to luck out as the museum director was starting a tour that we piggy backed on as soon as we walked in. I forget his name, but it was fascinating hearing him talk about visitors throughout the years.

John

I was just thinking last night about whether or not baseball is the sport most prone to sentimentality and opinion in its execution and reverence from fans. (conclusion: I couldn’t think of another pro sport that appears to eclipse it in this respect.)

This would seem to point in that general direction.

MikeB

Wondering why it is that baseball and its fandom is so overly resistance to change, compared to others. That it’s been a national game longer than others I guess.

John

I think it has to do with the pace of the game too – there’s a lot of time to think during baseball.

MikeB

Maybe it’s more of the romanticism tied to the the sport by writers and fans. And owners will only change if it’s tied directly to the bottom line

Jerry

Boxing is up there

John

I hadn’t considered boxing. Given how much boxing is driven by the size of the personality of those wearing the gloves, that makes sense.

Jack Ungerleider

The thing about baseball is that it was always seen as a “blue collar” sport. Teams play 5-6 games a week. Sometimes they go 2 or three weeks playing every day and traveling every 4th day. So for the 6-months that they play the teams are “regular working stiffs” (who get paid an enormous amount of money these days). Because of that there is rhythm to the baseball season that the other major team sports lack. Maybe it’s the everyday nature or the fact that they work when the rest of us are looking to take time off. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s a relatively simple game that almost everyone has played in some form or other. But as has been said many times by many people, it’s the only major sport where the defense controls the ball.

Erik Petersen

Souhan has witnessed an excess of slings and arrows because he’s a hot take guy to an excess. He doesn’t actually have the requisite baseball insight to be a proper baseball voter. The only guys that do are Reusse and LaVelle.

Souhan will go say another decade as a sports writer / personality in this town, and have the odd distinction of wrapping up a 40+ year public career in which there is a complete absence of belovedness for him. You cant say that about Sid, Reusse, or anyone else.

Jeff

I mostly agree, but he is right sometimes. He was vilified for saying Jerry Kill should step down and in the end it was probably the right thing to do at the time.

Erik Petersen

Souhan, I recall, was a big proponent that someone at the U fire Kill b/c of his health since he wouldn’t quit himself at that exact moment… though eventually he did quit.

It was very hot take-ish.

Keith P.

“…sticking to a principle isn’t worth risking credibility with fans. Not in this media economy.” Prickly, problematic principles produce plights putting people in pecks of predicamental pickles.

Rob

I can see where Ballou wouldn’t like closers because they come in during close games when their team is leading and there’s no one on base – and when they succeed, they keep the lead for their team, hence ensuring a win. Oh wait – guess I don’t get it after all.

I see his point. A closer comes in with the goal of not making a mess. A setup guy comes in with the goal of cleaning up someone else’s mess. As the game changes since Tito Francona used Andrew Miller in the 7th and 8th, it really is a recognition that the most valuable relief pitchers are those types. Just look at the World Series when starters wouldn’t even go four innings.

That said, Rivera was THAT kind of pitcher — he set up for another closer — for several years before he became one. And it’s not his fault that Torre used him as a closer.

And keep in mind that Rivera had one pitch — one pitch — and every batter knew it was coming and they STILL couldn’t hit it.

That alone makes him HOF material, IMO

Dave Draeger

Yes. Closers (Gossage, Sutter) used to come in in the 7th or 8th to get a team out of an actual jam. Somewhere along the line, managers started managing to the stat, so a four-out save became a big deal, and teams would blow a ballgame in the 6th or 7th because they were saving their “closer” in case they still had a lead in the 9th.

And yes, Rivera should be in the HOF even in that role.

I liked Michael Young’s tweet about the Rangers’ strategy for facing him: “Here’s my Mo story…
We’d have the guy in the on deck circle use the metal donut. If Jorge set up inside he’d knock the donut off hard, hitter would hear it, and know it was cutter inside…ya, not very obvious. It worked. He’d get 3 outs on 12 pitches instead of 9. Congrats Mo!”

Rob

Yes to all your points about Rivera. It was always highly enjoyable to watch him in both his “getting the starting pitcher out of a jam” and his “making sure we stay in the lead” modes – and watching him routinely confound batters with his extremely limited hurling repertoire. HOF, mos def.

X.A. Smith

Even if a batter DID hit it, there seemed to be a 50/50 chance that the bat would break. HOF all the way.